Uncategorized – Page 4 – Reach for the Seven Stars

Who really knows why people choose to do things like these? So so so many reasons and any personal gain from hard work and a sense of accomplishment, can only be a good thing, right?

I find it quite difficult to do a play by play of what happened that morning, it would be repeating the whole race in my head and I honestly do not have the headspace for that. It all just blends into one amazing moment. I always just try to remember the challenges and the key moments.

Challenges. I think my biggest challenge during this race is that my longest run for this training was only 12 miles! That’s not even a half marathon and the London Marathon was 5 months ago! I always have life and its accompaniments as an excuse but at this point in time, I just was not able to train as well as I could. I still managed to run 312.5 miles since London. Towards the end, I ran 8-10 miles 2 or 3 times a week, just put some distance in. Other than that, there wasn’t so much drama during the race – no funny left foot cramps (London), no weeing on the side of the road (Rome) though there were a couple of times I went for a wee and nothing came out – I was mad coz this ate up some of my time. No vomiting or cramping. No injuries.

Another big challenge for me throughout this endeavour is I’m not the best at fundraising. A big part of it is that I am not on social media, which is how most fundraising is done. I only have this blog as it’s the only thing I have headspace for. So recently, I did sign up for an Instagram account (a bit late in the game, everyone seems so well-established in it already). 2 days later, I deleted it. I already started feeling anxious knowing it was on my home screen. To protect my sanity, I’m sticking to this blog and will find another way.

Key moments. 1) Early on, I established to follow the Blue Lines – the lines that the Elite runners follow, the exact distance and the shortest time to complete the race. This was my companion throughout, it allowed me to not weave through the other runners so much. 2) Though the crowd was not as electric at London, and not as many people were yelling out my name. I was excited to see some Filipinos, waving the Philippine flag, cheering on Filipino runners. So everytime I passed them, I yelled “Kabayan!!!” And they cheered! 3) There was also a time when I passed a little girl and her dad and they had a radio blasting “Shake it off” by Taylor Swift, which is one of Xavier’s favourite songs these days (the Sing version) then a few metres on, I saw a runner with Maya printed on her back. I got teary-eyed but had to snap out of it. I high-fived every little person who had their hand out! 4) Lastly, the best thing was seeing Yang Yang and Philipp 200 metres before the Finish Line. Earlier in the day, I had pinned a location so they could wait for me there, easy to recognise – half a mile before the Finish Line, on the right side. When I got to that corner, I didn’t see them! I got disappointed but had to carry on. Towards the end, I had already moved back to the middle, I hear “Niccccaaaaaa, Nicaaaaaa!” It was Yang-Yang, next to her Phillip trying to take pictures. I was screaming and crying and so excited! I gave them a quick hug and ran to the Finish. There’s video evidence of how bad my posture was towards the end. I also really thought I would beat my 4:37, but I had to wee.

I finished at 4 hrs 45 mins 45 secs! 7 minutes faster than London. Not bad for 12 miles being my longest run. I am so pleased with these results!

Post-race chaos.

My Berlin Marathon would not be complete without any drama. So… the original plan was to fly back the same evening, as David is on a long day the next day. I’ve already caused him so much grief having back to back races when he is revising for his Anaesthetics exam in November. Walking towards the Hauptbanhof, we checked my flight – Easyjet has cancelled the flight due to air traffic control problems in Gatwick! WTF?! There went all the excitement of just finishing the marathon and panic ensued! We all had to sit down and figured this out – no further flights, next flight would be Tuesday (not an option), we thought of flying to Amsterdam then taking the Eurostar, flying to Ireland. Ended up refunding EasyJet ticket, buying a ticket to Copenhagen the same night and to London the next morning. David was obviously not very happy with this but had to plan – “David take Maya home with you tonight and take her to Breakfast Club exactly at 7am. You will be late to work, but you will still get there. I will pick Xave up from your Mums tomorrow and take him to nursery from there.”

At this point, all I wanted was a Doner Kebab and a shower. We managed to get Doners at the Hauptbanhof and ate them en route. Satisfied. Yang Yang had to catch her flight and Phil and I chilled for a bit, after trying to freshen up at the toilets. At least I have a new €35 Finisher T-Shirt (still mad why we had to pay for this). Managed to get a cheap airport hotel room in Copenhagen to shower and lay down for a few hours.

Though I was literally in Berlin for about 36 hours, I am so glad for my 2 friends who came and cheered me on and be part of this journey. In 3 days time, I will be meeting a few more friends who will be cheering me on at the Chicago Marathon! 5 days to go!